Until recently, I would whine and complain about how hard life as a stay at home mum was - No More! This blog is a gratitude journal to the gorgeous kids I have. Please, read and enjoy - and join in!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Hi, I'm Fairy from the GunnaDo Tribe...

Hi and nice to see ya!

I can't even think of the last time I actually posted, but here is another pocket of time I've found, with too many things running through my head that I'm excited about. I'm going to try to keep this post from being really long, but no promises (although no doubt the kiddies are on the side of keeping it short and will interupt me mid sentence of course!).

First, I can't wait to say that over the last couple of months I've been keeping a mental check on how much rubbish we produce here. It's quite disgusting. No, actually, it's REALLY disgusting. So I did change from disposable to cloth nappies when Alice got heavy enough for them, yeah. Cut down all those nappies that were going in the bin by about 95% that did! Ethan still has a night nappy, but unfortunately he won't wear a cloth one as he says they're uncomfortable. But generally, instead of 6 or so disposables in our bin a day, we're just putting in one. I'm happy with that. Unless we're going away for a really long stretch of time (like 8 nappies worth), then Alice will be wearing cloth all day and night. So maybe one day out of fourteen we're using disposables. Not ideal, but I'll get there.

But the green waste, that I was definitely NOT happy about. So I researched, I asked questions, I pondered, and then I went to gumtree and found a secondhand Bokashi Bucket! I am soooo happy that now I have really cut down our outgoing-to-the-landfill rubbish. No kidding, I'd love a compost tumbler, but the cash is in short supply and they just don't come up secondhand that often. I honestly cannot believe how much that little addition to my kitchen has cut down my trips to the big bin. I put a plastic shopping bag (yeah, I know, but hey, I'm learning!) in the kitchen bin three days ago, and finally took it to the bin this morning, and even then it was only a quarter full. Between my vigilant recycling efforts (Ethan starts kindy tomorrow so I've been keeping my yoghurt containers, etc in a stockpile for the teacher), my bokashi and the nappies, I've cut our landfill waste down from a bag a day to a quarter of a bag in three days. Unbelievable.

Ok, so my next gabble is that I've been knitting, and have nearly finished a baby blanket. My first knitted gift, and I'm proud to say it's not too bad. I've got at least two babies to 'buy' for this year, and I'm not actually going to 'buy' anything if I can help it, but rather do some making and gifting. Babies are adorable, cute, cuddly, and amazing. They also grow far too quickly to warrant buying them anything brand new that will last only a few weeks! Think of the environmental difference we could all make if we re-purposed all of our clothing for just the first three months. It would have to be significant, yeah?

I have also fallen in love, all over again, with hemphemphooray and Teresa's fantastic face cream. I bought the day cream some time ago (two, three months?) and it's still half full. I use it every morning and night, and it is just the best. So is the lip salve that I got. Look, I don't get any financial gain in telling you about hemphemphooray, but gees, just go and have a look if you're looking for an alternative to beauty products that contain hidden nasties. I've known Teresa for about a decade, and the woman knows what she's doing!

Ok, like I said, I'd get interupted. But I haven't, amazingly. So to leave you with a pic of our happy girl, I hope you have a great week.

2 comments:

wow, impressive trash reduction! i think we fill a regular trash bag every 3 days, and that's after cloth diapering, recycling, and composting! what else can i cut? we cloth diapered both babies, but were never very hard core about it. always used a disposable at night, and if we were going somewhere that changing would be a real pain. congrats on the shift!

ooh! i might need to pick your brains about the bokashi! i started one and then sort of lost confidence and bunged it outside for the winter =). also, it was getting full and i haven't quite got a plan for where to bury it. or any tools with which to dig a hole. (ready, shoot, aim, i always say!) but it was fantastic for cutting down stuff that goes out the door on bin day.